Of Forks and New Foods
by oddball15
Summary: And it was all because of a fork... or lack thereof. Nate/Ella *Nella*


**To Liz, because when I said, "I want to write a Nate and Ella story but I don't know what the plot should be!" She said, "FORK!"**

**Thanks Liz. You made this story happen. :)**

* * *

"Fork…" Ella muttered to herself, scanning the table. She was waiting for her food and was bored. She had been staring at the table, visually searching for her fork. She glanced over at the couple with two children at the table across from her. The kids were fork-fighting and their food hadn't come yet. So the food didn't come with a fork… Then where was it? A waiter walked by and turned around.

"Do you need anything, miss?"

Ella considered asking this man where her fork was but decided against it. He'd find a way to make her feel bad because she didn't know. She would not let that happen again. She'd find it herself. She shook her head no and smiled.

Ella put on her serious face... If she were a fork at a restaurant where whould she be? She peeked under the table…. Nothing but crumbs and two wadded up napkins. She looked behind the flip-through dessert menu. She looked under the oddly shaped, hard napkin in front of her. She checked between the salt and pepper shakers. She felt between the cushions of her booth and the one across from it. Nothing but twenty-two cents and some lint.

She scowled and rested her face on her hand.

"Excuse me, but are you all right?" Ella turned around to see where the voice had come from. She came face-to-face with a brown-eyed, curly-haired young man, who was looking intently at her.

Ella shrugged. "I'm fine."

"Well, you seemed kind of distressed. You're sure you're okay?"

Ella smiled and nodded. This guy seemed really sweet.

"Good." The man flashed a quick smile and turned back around. Ella stared at the back of his head for a few moments before he turned around again. "Would you like to come sit with me? I don't have any company and if you don't either… we could be each others' company."

Ella pondered this. The man was nice and actually kind of cute. She was alone and he was alone. Besides, he might have an extra fork!

"Sure!" Ella said, gladly skipping the whole three feet to his booth. She sat herself down across from him and he smiled.

She glanced down quickly. There was a fork. Right at her place, on top of the napkin.

"I'm Nate." He stuck out his hand.

"Ella." She shook his hand and remembered what her father had taught her about making a good impression with a handshake. Firm grip and eye contact. Nate would have passed the good-handshake test with flying colors. Ella liked how his hand felt and his eyes were pretty.

"That's a beautiful name." Nate's eyes were transfixed on hers, but Ella was too busy studying _his _eyes to be nervous about it. She smiled shyly.

"So… what do you do for a living, Ella?" Nate abruptly changed the subject.

"Oh… I sing backup vocals for some of my friends and help edit a fashion magazine."

"Wow. That's cool. What friends do you back up for… like would I know them?" Nate's face showed genuine interest. Most people just laughed when Ella told them this. She liked how this Nate man was so… different.

"You might know them… Mitchie Torres and Margaret Dupree?"

"Really?" Nate's eyebrows went up, but he wasn't mocking Ella. He seemed excited.

"Yeah." Ella smiled.

"Wow. They're both phenomenal. And you sing backups for both of them? That's awesome."

Now it was official. Ella liked this guy. He was nice, didn't make fun of her, and was _really_ cute. Especially those sparkly brown eyes…

"What do you do then, Nate?" Ella asked, remembering that there was a conversation going on and she couldn't just stare at his eyes the whole evening.

"I actually play in a band…"

"Oooh, what band?"

"We're called Connect 3."

Ella's jaw dropped. "Oh my God, seriously?!"

Nate nodded and smiled awkwardly. "Yeah."

"You rock!" Ella's eyes lit up. She'd heard them play before and was positively in love with their music.

"Thanks." Nate smiled, this time, sincerely. "So… what were you doing over there?" Nate motioned behind him, obviously thinking of Ella's odd behavior a few minutes before.

"Oh…that…" Ella scrunched up her face, wondering if she should lie because she might sound dumb. She decided to tell the truth. "I was looking for my fork."

Nate nodded in understanding. Ella breathed a quiet sigh of relief. He didn't go all Oh-My-God-Ella-You-Are-Such-An-Airhead on her. Yes, Ella was an airhead and she knew it. But she didn't like being told that when she was already quite aware.

The two made pleasant conversation for a few minutes until their food came. They made pleasant conversation while they were eating. All in all, it was very pleasant at the table.

After Nate was done with his steak he set his fork down and smiling, watched Ella scrape up the rest of her pasta from her plate. Ella noticed his odd expression mid-chew.

"What?" She asked, mouth full of food.

Nate chuckled. "It's just… you eat! Most girls like you I know barely eat when they're out at dinner. But you actually eat!"

Ella swallowed and took a sip of her water. "Yeah, I do eat. A lot... But, oh my God, seriously- this is the best stuff ever! Here, try some!" She picked up a few noodles with her fork and held it up in front of Nate's face. He laughed.

"Seriously?"

"Yes! You'll love it."

He gave Ella a kind of sideways whatever-you-say kind of nod and grabbed her fork and took a bite. He chewed deliberately for a long time. When he was finally done he looked at Ella, who was watching him with immense anticipation.

"That," He said, drawing his thought out, just to torment Ella, "is… amazing." He cracked a smile and Ella cheered.

"I knew you'd like it!!"

Nate laughed. "Thanks for making me try that. It was good."

"Yeah, any time you need to try something new, just call me over!" Ella laughed as she spoke.

Nate raised his eyebrows. "Speaking of that, what _is _your phone number?"

Ella blushed as they exchanged contact information.

When it was time to pay, Nate told Ella he would pay for dinner.

"Really?" Ella asked.

"Yeah. And I think we should do this again sometime."

"Really?" Was all Ella could make herself say. She'd only just met Nate, but she was already head-over-heels in like with him.

Nate smiled at her. "Yeah. This was really fun."

"It was fun. Really fun…. But….don't you have, like, a girlfriend or something?"

_Way to ruin the moment, Ella._

Nate laughed; he'd been doing a lot of that tonight. Ella liked it.

"No, I don't. You don't have a boyfriend?"

"No…"

"Then I think we should…" Nate hesitated for a moment, but then started over. "Would you like to go out again sometime?"

Ella completely lit up. "I'd love to!"

"Great!"

They both kept huge grins on their faces as Nate walked Ella to her car.

They said their goodbyes and see-you-laters and Nate started walking away. Ella was just sitting down in her car when he turned back around.

"Hey, Ella?"

"Yeah?"

"Your fork was inside the napkin." Nate winked before he turned away once more.

* * *

**Hey! This is my first fic after a few weeks. I'm reposting it because I had to add AN at the top (I'm lame, I know). I hope it doesn't disappoint! I'd been toying with the idea of this for a few weeks... but I actually had to write it. That took me a while. I have some kind of weird writer's block at the moment, and I really don't think this is one of my best fics, but I though doing a Nate/Ella would spice things up a bit. Sooo pretty pretty please review (even if you did last time... sorry about that) and tell me what you thought! Thank you so much for reading!! xoxo :)**

**PS- Sorry for the few of you who favorited this the first time I posted it... I had to post it again, though. Sorry!**


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